Powering The Future Internet

dweekly

2000/12/17

note: this article was heavily edited by Rafael Queseda and the editors at Digital Mogul. The article is not necessarily written in my style.

Most people talking about broadband these days generally have in mind two different kinds of services: HFC (hybrid fiber coaxial) cable and DSL. Understanding the differences and limitations of these services is important to any discussion concerning the future

of the Internet, and basic to that understanding is defining what the term “broadband” means, as it can have many meanings.

Some consider broadband to be a description of

bit rate speeds in excess of 64 Kbps or even 1.5 Mbps.

However, in strict technical parlance, the term refers to the

transmission of numerous frequencies over a single pipe such

as coaxial cable or DSL, preferably bi-directionally, or

interactive. In that respect, for example, the opposite of

broadband would be baseband service such as

POTS, or plain old telephone service, that delivers voice

circuit services, only (though it is bi-directional and

somewhat interactive).

In the case of cable operators, broadband services are enabled when a cable company

“overbuilds” the capacity of its existing copper-based network so as to deliver products other than normal CATV. This is accomplished by connecting to the long haul telecommunications fiber optic backbone, thereby adding telephony and Internet

services to a cable company’s traditional offering. Similarly, DSL providers transform the phone networks’ legacy of “twisted pair” copper wires by overbuilding that network with a

system of components including “digital subscriber access multiplexers,” “splitters,” and “distribution frames.” In this way, broadband pipes are created out of POTS, with the DSL

provider then able to deliver voice, high speed Internet, and (as a by-product of Internet), streaming video, music, and other media.

What most people don’t know is that a lurking behemoth is set to re-define the broadband landscape, delivering bundled services unimagined (and largely feared) by cable and DSL providers. This behemoth is none other than the brethren of power utility companies, presently re-defining themselves in the face of advancing deregulation in both telecommunication and utilities industries.

Starting around fifteen years ago, power companies began laying fiber optic cables along their rights of way. They figured at the time that they would use the data lines to monitor power consumption at remote locations and to control their power equipment from afar. As early as 1994 though, they began to understand that they might be able to do more

with these cables – that they might be able to provide full fiber to the home (FTTH). Congress’s passing of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 gave public utility companies the go-ahead to provide these services and the resulting projects are beginning to gain

serious momentum.

The real inspiration to move into emerging broadband service provisioning came relatively

outside firms. Recently, Cogent Communications blew everyone’s socks off when they announced that they would be providing 100 megabit dedicated Internet services for

$1000/month starting in November. But it wasn’t exactly trumpeted that Cogent was leasing fiber from Williams Communications, a division of the energy and gas pipeline provider Williams; the deal netted Williams a cool $215 million. This clearly illustrates the value of power companies that take advantage of their extensive rights of way. The lesson is not new, however: Sprint started out courtesy of the rights of way on the Southern Pacific Railway, whose acronym provided the inspiration for the company name; Western Union was once partnered with the railway lines of frontier America. What portrait of the American west would be complete without telegraph lines strung next to the railroads?

hurry, bringing network, hardware, and service providers to the table together to provide an all-fiber network for homes and businesses across the U.S. Their goal is to provide the

public with 100 megabit fiber service for prices that undercut ADSL by Christmas 2001. A very aggressive schedule, perhaps, but they are presently in Alpha and will be following that with a 2000-home beta trial mid-2001.

If EarthSun succeeds, it could trump the existing cable versus DSL

squabbles. Given the existing infrastructure with which both

cable and telephone companies are presently encumbered, it

might prove impossible for DSL and cable to scale up to this

level of service in any meaningful way. EarthSun and other

next-generation optical firms would duke it out to provide

better, cheaper fiber with a vast array of services. Combined

with streaming video over IP and low-latency voice over IP,

the power utilities, through third parties like EarthSun,

could end up providing electricity, dial-tone, Internet, fax,

television, teleconferencing, and other yet-to-be-imagined

services all on one low-cost bill (in similar fashion to Sprint’s ION) and